A week after Pastor Mark Burns raised eyebrows at the RNC with his opening prayer, last night the DNC was led in prayer by the Rev. Dr. Cynthia L. Hale, senior pastor of the Ray of Hope Christian Church. In a prayer during which she described human error leading to division among the United States, she also invoked the greatness of America and the high expectations of God for the nation and for the Democratic party to promote justice, equality, and inclusivity. However, when she invoked the name of the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, the previously prayerful room erupted into competing cheers and jeers, and chants of “Bernie” followed the rest of the prayer through its final “Amen.”
“Unite us, O God, in one party,” Hale concluded. Watch her prayer here.
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Secretary Clinton (and the rest of us) will need all the prayers she can get in order to muster the electoral votes necessary in November. I’m not a Clintonite. I lived through the Clinton presidency. Nor am I nihilist. We stand between dysfunction and the abyss. I chose the former.
Maybe it’s time to reconsider a circumspect,white, male, Episcopal priest for this traditional task of opening these conventions with prayer.
Ha…!
Great prayer but mentioning “nominating HRClinton” merely invited continued division rather than unity. Not sure that is purpose of prayer.
Would have rethought that clause given the fracture we have seen this week.
Given that Hillary had the votes, it was reasonable to assume that she was the presumptive nominee and could be prayed over. Interrupting prayer was classless.
Only in retrospect have I learned that some in the Bernie camp had held out hope for a brokered convention, but that was so unrealistic, who would have thought…
This prayer veered too far into being a partisan political statement for my taste, but at least she doesn’t refer to Trump and the Republican Party as the “enemy” as Mark Burns did at the RNC.